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Biography

Jill Scott is the author of A Poetics of Forgiveness: Cultural Responses to Loss and Wrongdoing (New York: Palgrave, 2010) and Electra after Freud: Myth and Culture (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2005), and co-editor of Thinking and Practicing Reconciliation: Teaching and Learning Through Literary Responses to Conflict (Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Press, 2013).

She is the Principal Investigator for a HEQCO-funded learning outcomes assessment study at Queen’s, and her current research projects encompass assessment of learning outcomes in higher education and Indigenous-settler relations in Canada. She is author of “Kaswentha: Haudenosaunee Peacebuilding Practices and the Future of Indigenous-Settler Relations in Canada" and other articles on nation-specific forms of reconciliation and redress.

Before Scott joined Queen’s in 2001, she held appointments at the University of Toronto, York University and Carleton University. At Queen’s, she has been teaching interdisciplinary courses in literature, law and Indigenous cultures, courses in German literature and language, and she is cross-appointed to the graduate program in Cultural Studies and the Department of Gender Studies.

Most recently, Jill Scott has been developing courses with innovative uses of social media, including “Conflict & Culture: Literature, Law & Human Rights,” an interdisciplinary humanities course, the aim of which is to foster the development of competencies in intercultural communication in a multi-disciplinary framework through the lens of inquiry learning. The courses is framed around the ICE learning model (Ideas, Connections, Extensions – see Susan Fostaty Young and Robert Wilson, Assessment and Learning: The ICE Approach 1995) as a learning tool, with Twitter as the main writing platform. Students write Tweets (140 character utterances) and MegaTweets (140 word compositions) to demonstrate their knowledge of the content and improve their written communication skills. Students build online learning communities outside the classroom and engage in small-group active learning during class time. By making students’ work visible and real-time real-world communication which engages multiple publics in the learning process, student engagement is increased and students are motivated to succeed.

Languages (4)

Media Appearances (10)

Queen’s learning just a click away

The Queen's Journalonline

2016-03-04

“Queen’s proposed courses like everybody else, and ours were just more successful than other people’s,” Vice Provost (Teaching and Learning) Jill Scott said.

This year, Queen’s submitted 56 proposals, 14 of which were for Arts and Science. Queen’s received funding for 28 of the proposed course developments, totaling 32 per cent of the provincial funding available.

“The whole idea from the government’s perspective was to really kickstart online learning for the province,” Scott said.

Queen's testing students' 'soft skills' to gauge how they’ll cope in job world

Toronto Star Newspapersonline

2016-02-22

“Employers want to know more than the fact you know your field; they want to know you’re going to show up at a meeting on time, have thought about the issue and bring questions to ask,” said Jill Scott, vice-provost of teaching and learning.

“Measuring these kinds of skills is a game-changer. People may roll their eyes at standardized tests, but if we don’t have the data, we can’t have these conversations.”

‘Indigenization’ hits campuses aiming to give students ‘baseline knowledge’ about First Nations, Metis and Inuit

National Postonline

2015-12-18

“I feel many of our affirmative action projects have to tread lightly,” said Jill Scott, a Queen’s University professor in the Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures.

“In Canada, in particular, one of the things I think about is many Canadians identify as immigrants … There are many stories of survival, hardship, struggle that go with that. Turning all those people, all of a sudden, into settlers who’ve displaced indigenous peoples is tricky and quite often leads to acrimony.”

As schools contemplate ways to address long-term redress and reconciliation, they have to “find some way for all of those stories about who we are to co-exist,” she said.

Queen’s closes theology programs

Jill Scott, vice-provost (teaching and learning) and chair of the Senate Committee on Academic Development (SCAD), says the historic importance of theology won’t be forgotten.

“The University is really very much aware of the historic importance of this program. It is the foundation of our university, and so this decision was not taken lightly,” she said. She added that the University took their time while closing the program, which made it a “successful and smooth process”.

“Even in the years leading up to 2012, they have made really, I would say, heroic efforts to find students.”

Jim Flaherty's life and legacy

The mayor's show of contrition seemed carefully crafted to "control the message" by "pushing all the emotional buttons," said Jill Scott, a professore at Queen's University who researches the social dynamics of conflict.

"What we often find though with political apologies is that there is a naming of some sort of wrongdoing and then there are a variety of measures that are used to mitigate the responsibility — excuse, justification, explanation, some form of blaming others," she said.

When Lying Backfires

Phone-in show with Queen's University professor Jill Scott on the subject of lying.

Foreign languages captivated Jill Scott at a young age

Queen's Gazetteonline

2013-01-07

Jill Scott was captivated by foreign languages at a young age, when she heard her Grade 8 French teacher speak in French to another teacher.

"I thought it was so exciting. It was magic – being able to open your mouth and sound different,” says Dr. Scott (Languages, Literatures and Cultures/Gender Studies). “To know that they understood each other, but I didn't understand them, was so cool. I wanted in."

Why - and how - the public is mourning over the Newtown School shootings

Globe and Mailprint

2012-12-20

Op-ed written in the wake of the mass shooting in Newtown.

Research Grants (4)

Connections Grant

SSHRC (Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada) $25,000

2014-01-01

Kahswentha Indigenous knowledge initiative

Learning Outcomes Assessment Consortium

HEQCO $300,000

2013-2016

Higher Education Grant

Proctor and Gamble $5,000

2012-01-01

The Procter & Gamble Fund Higher Education Grant Program has been established to provide support for efforts of regionally accredited U.S. colleges and universities that will better prepare students for success in business.

Aurora Prize

SSHRC (Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada)

2005-02-02

In a world where tragedy is too quickly followed by retaliation and revenge, Jill Scott is looking for a little forgiveness.

The Queen’s University professor of German studies and winner of the 2005 SSHRC Aurora Prize is analyzing 20th and 21st century literature, film and photography to explore whether forgiveness still exists in a post-9/11 society obsessed with loss and wrongdoing.

“We hear a lot about memorials, monuments and mourning these days,” says Scott. “But, I want to know whether forgiveness has a place in all this. Looking at how forgiveness is dealt with in fiction and poetry gives us a unique insight into how we—as a society—may be able to move beyond the current cycle of suffering and revenge.”

While still just beginning her career, Scott’s research is at the cutting edge of the humanities. By combining fields such as comparative literature and German studies with feminist theory, history and psychology, she unearths original ideas and timely topics that are just as relevant to popular audiences as they are to the academic community.

Her latest book, Electra after Freud: Myth and Culture, published by Cornell University Press, investigates the psychological connection between the re-emergence of the violent Greek myth of Electra in modern poetry, drama and literature, and the appalling violence witnessed during the Holocaust and other atrocities of the past century.

Scott’s innovative research is quickly making her a sought-after speaker and guest lecturer, and her current work on forgiveness is sure to make an impact far beyond the halls of academia.